Strang, Thomas, 1763-1851
John M. McDonald interview — 1847-10-20
Thomas Strang (1763-1851) describes the raids made by British forces against Crompond in present-day Yorktown in June 1779. A force under Colonel Robert Abercrombie raided the area on June 3, while cavalry commanded by Colonel Banastre Tarleton did the same on June 24. Strang describes the destruction caused in each raid. He then recounts an incident when a company of minutemen apprehended a Loyalist named Chase in Peekskill. A gathering of Loyalists demanded Chase’s release, and Thomas’s father, Henry, and uncle Joseph had to go to Connecticut to bring in militia to disarm the party. Strang then returns to the events of June 24, 1779, explaining how the British cavalry surprised American militia commanded by Colonel Samuel Drake at Crompond. He recalls that British cavalry attempted to rob Hannah Sackett DeLancey, daughter of the Reverend Samuel Sackett, the minister whose church they had burned. Unaware that she was the daughter of the minister but hearing the name DeLancey, the cavalry commander gave her an escort. Strang concludes by describing the burial sites of Colonel Christopher Greene, Major Ebenezer Flagg and Westchester Guide Abraham “Brom” Dyckman.
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Transcription
73. five dwelling houses in the village of Peekskill. This was before the Revolutionary war. In the course of the war they built a good many more houses.
[margin: Col. Saml. Drake not Joseph - appt. Adjutant - rifle men Tories - 600 men to Delancy to disarm the Tories - Dr. Seig. Newton - Thomas Currie, Jr. Peekskill.] October 20th Thomas Strang. "When the British under Abercrombie came to Crompond and burnt Strang's house, it was afternoon. When the horse came June 24th, it was early in the morning. On the 24th of June Tarleton came up by a circuitous route going up the Croton above Pines Bridge one mile and a half or more above, crossed at Vail's ford, advanced upon Crompond from the east by a road which bends like a semi-circle, coming in to the Crompond road, a little south of where Delavan
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74. [margin: Father of John Shaw of Peekskill.] lived. They then came to Delavan's house, where they found John Shaw whom they killed, mistaking him for Capt. Delavan. This happened in the morning of June 24th, on the road from Crompond to Pine's Bridge, about two miles three quarters from Crompond. The British then burnt the Meeting House and Parsonage house and retired upon Pine's Bridge. On the 3d of June 1779, Major Abercrombie burnt Major Strang's house then occupied as a Court House, and also burnt a store house, then used as a depot for fire arms and stores &c for the military. Shaw was killed at Delavan's stable. He defended himself gallantly, but was set upon by five or six horsemen and cut to pieces. The cowboys, tories, [?] and horse thieves penetrated Westchester, O. & D. Counties all the way to Albany. On the 24th of June 1779, some
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75. of Tarleton's men advanced a mile north of the Meeting House, as far as the brook beyond my house.
Ezekiel Hyatt raised a company of Minute men in rifle dress about thirty, with black gaiters, who were placed by the Provincial Congress under the three Committee men from Crompond - vizt: Joseph Strang, Abraham Purdy and Joseph Die, who ordered Hyatt to apprehend one Chase a tory, very influential with the rabble. Chase was taken and lodged in a guard house at Peekskill by Hyatt. Two or three hundred tories assembled in arms and demanded the release of Chase, several times with threats which Hyatt refused. Nathaniel Merritt lived in Peekskill, was an influential man among the tories who assembled and deliberated at his house. They threatened, and were so numerous that my father and uncle, Henry and Joseph Strang, went to Connec-
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76. ticut and brought in 600 Connecticut troops who disarmed the tories, placed the arms and accoutrements in the Parsonage House for safe keeping, and a queer set of arms they were - old firelocks, rusty pistols, worn out [?] espontoons, &c ancient swords," &c &c.
When the British horse surprised Colonel Drake at Crompond, a British party crossed Vail's ford about two miles east of Pine's Bridge and advanced upon a crooked road commencing at the Ford and running first northerly, then Westerly and southerly and coming in to the Pine's Bridge and Crompond road, near Delavan's house, and a little south and west of it. This was done that they might not be discovered. They retreated after burning the Church straight back to Pine's bridge.
Andrew Miller's was between two and three miles west of Crompond village.
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77. Hannah Sackett, wife of Stephen Delancey, was on horseback escaping from the burning of the church, and was overtaken about one mile from Crompond northerly by some horse men who robbed her of her shoe buckles and requested her to dismount. She refused, and exclaimed "Is this the way you treat females? I will inform your superiors. Where is your commander?" She appeared. "I am the wife of Stephen Delancey. Is this proper treatment for her? Give me an escort to a place of safety." The Commander on hearing Delancey's name gave her an escort. She didn't tell that she was daughter of Mr. Sackett, the Whig Presbyterian minister at Crompond. [margin: See 106.] Col. Green and Major Flagg are buried in the same grave, in the south-east corner of the Burying Ground at Crompond, and Brom. Dyckman lies near the same spot.